1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus to which a dynamically removable memory device can be connected, a server to be connected to the electronic apparatus via a network, and a control method for controlling the electronic apparatus, whereby it can be easily determined whether the memory device can be used with the electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large variety of removable memory devices (hereinafter, “memory devices”), such as secure digital (SD) cards or universal serial bus (USB) memories are manufactured by various companies all over the world. The memory devices have superior portability, and the memory capacity of the memory devices has been dramatically increasing in recent years. In addition, the memory devices are inexpensive and have rapidly spread among users.
In view of the above circumstances, although the memory devices used to be used only with an information-processing apparatus such as a personal computer (PC), the memory devices are now also used with various electronic apparatuses (hereinafter, an electronic apparatus to which a memory device is connectable is referred to as “apparatus”) such as home electronics.
There is a standard for the memory devices. The memory devices are manufactured so as to meet the standard so that the memory devices can be connected without any problems to various apparatuses that are in conformity with the standard.
The problem is that some memory devices have such poor quality that they fail to meet the standard. If such a non-standard memory device is connected to an apparatus, the apparatus can malfunction. The malfunction can occur in the apparatus to various degrees, for example, the operation of the apparatus is stopped, or, although the apparatus recognizes the memory device, the apparatus cannot perform writing and reading operations to and from the memory device. Thus, inconvenience is caused to users.
Manufacturers conduct some tests on an apparatus before the apparatus is put on the market. If the apparatus has functions that use memory devices, the manufacturer conducts some tests on the functions by using various types of memory devices. However, it is impractical in terms of cost and time for manufacturers to perform tests on the functions by using all the memory devices available on the market. Therefore, the manufacturer usually selects typical memory devices from the memory devices available on the market and conducts the tests by using these selected memory devices. The manufacturer often treats the typical memory devices that pass the tests as recommended memory devices and the other memory devices as memory devices that are not supported by the apparatus.
Therefore, if a user has a memory device that is not a recommended memory device, because the user is not sure if the memory device can be used with the apparatus, the user uses the memory device in the apparatus taking a risk that the apparatus can malfunction. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-114834 discloses a USB-device evaluation system in which if a problem occurs when a USB device is operated with a PC during evaluation of the operation of the USB device, the status of a USB bus during the occurrence of the problem is recorded in order to find and remove the cause of the problem.
The limitation with the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-114834 is that it is possible only to solve the problem when it occurs. Therefore, if the user has a memory device that is not a recommended memory device, the user uses the memory device in the apparatus taking a risk that the apparatus can malfunction.
It is inconvenient for the user to check that a memory device is a recommended memory device or to remember the names of recommended memory devices. Furthermore, it is disadvantageous for the user to prepare a recommended memory device each time the user needs to use a memory device.
As described above, it is difficult in terms of cost and time for the manufacturer to conduct tests on memory devices available on the market one by one. Furthermore, it is also difficult in terms of cost for the manufacturer to examine what kinds of memory devices available on the market are often used.